Career development
YourAftercare
YourAftercare is a specialised programme to provide disadvantaged young people aged 16-24, who have completed community and educational programmes, with individually tailored interaction to enhance their self-sufficiency, develop greater autonomy and increase their capacity to progress career opportunities and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
YourStory has identified the importance of continued self-progression of individuals in order for them to fulfill their potential after completing career development courses. However there is an acute lack of such service provision, which is a fundamental factor behind many young people failing to obtain long-term employment and maintain healthy lifestyles after successfully completing development courses.
The programme aims to assign specialist keyworkers to individual young people to assist and sustain their development. This is unique compared to other services provided as the whole programme is focused around the knowledge and experience gained by clients on previous courses. Regardless of whether the previous experiences have been positive or negative there is development work that can stem from these.
Turning a young person's life around is an exceptionally hard process and not something that can always be achieved through just one education or community course, after which the young people are expected to develop and maintain healthy lifestyles and long-term career aspirations. Without the correct, personalised aftercare support disenfranchised young people often revert to their previous approach to life, undoing the work they have done.
YourStory has an extensive partnership remit with statutory, private and voluntary sectors which we will utilise to continue their self-development. We aim to further extend these partnerships and also develop greater dialogue with establishments referring young people. This will permit, subject to confidentiality issues, better individually tailored aftercare support delivered by YourStory. We currently have excellent working links with national community based projects, including Prince's Trust, Rayleigh International and Motive8.
Aftercare is a 24 weeks based programme, divided into two 12-week periods. The initial period is used to stablise and cement previously completed work and knowledge gained by the individual on their previous course.
In-depth interaction is required with referral organisations to evaluate the initial progression of individuals whilst forging the relevant links with future pathways. YourStory aims to identify perceived barriers to individual progression and works with the client to overcome these. Such barriers often include substantial elements of financial and housing instability, unhealthy lifestyles and peer pressure.
The initial 12-week period involves weekly one-to-one sessions with keyworkers and small group sessions in which we examine progression and plan for the short-, medium- and long-term future. Such groupwork is fundamental in aiding individual progression.
The second phase of aftercare provides discrete background support, monitoring and evaluation of individuals who now have autonomy over important decisions and issues in their life.